Sherri Puchalsky

In a thread in the Game Programming forum on Kongregate, a developer working on his first game asked experienced developers in our community what they learned from making their first game and what they would do differently if they had the opportunity to start over again. The thread can be read here, but we also wanted to highlight some common themes that many new game developers might find helpful. Choose Your First Project Wisely and Finish It! People who want to get into game development often have a “dream game” they hope to make. That’s great! But set that aside for now. Your first projects are about learning, and part of what you are learning is how to manage complexity and finish projects. Light_bringer777, creator of the Learn to Fly games, advises, “Your first objective should always be to learn and improve yourself at the beginning. Do projects that teach you something rather than aiming for production value early on.” Remember that you aren’t only learning how to code and how to design; you are learning how